The Best Foods For Hiking, Camping, Hunting and Other Outdoor Activities

Hikers, campers, canoers, kayakers, cyclists, hunters or other outdoors men and women, that are on extended trips or outings, have two basic food requirements: 1) to be able to easily transport food and 2) to replace spent energy, hopefully with satisfying and tasty foods. Dehydrated meats or jerky and dried fruits and dried vegetables can provide the protein, carbohydrates and vitamins needed by active sportspeople on the go. Dehydrated food is lightweight and calorie dense and thus meets the two basic food needs of outdoors and sports people.

Use a food dehydrator to make your own dehydrated food at home. A food dehydrator is specifically designed to remove significant amounts of water from food. The water content of food is typically very high, usually between 80% to 95% for various fruits and vegetables and 50% to 75% for different meats. Removing the moisture from food inhibits various bacteria from growing and spoiling it while also reducing the weight of the dehydrated food. Thus, food dehydrators are ideal tools for the preservation and storage of food and an ideal tool for making lightweight, shelf stable, easily transportable food.

Great dehydrated food that is easy to transport and provides great tasting, nutritious meals include:

– Dried fruit like apples, apricots, bananas and berries. Dried fruit is great for replacing energy and providing nutrient dense food. Removing a fruit’s water also decreases the its volume, thus, once dried, the fruit’s nutrient, calorie, and sugar content becomes more concentrated per each serving.

– Fruit leather made from apples, applesauce, bananas, pears, plums and or strawberries. Homemade fruit leather is naturally delicious and does not contain the extra sugars or preservatives that many store bought varieties do.

– Dried vegetables and veggie chips made from eggplant, sweet potato or zucchini.

– Beef jerky or other types of jerky. Jerky is a great choice for excellent protein and caloric intake.

– Trail mix. Make homemade trail mix with dried fruits and nuts and avoid the unhealthy additives, extra non-natural sugars and saturated fats that can be in store bought trail mix.